Indigenous Justice

Gentle shepherd come and lead us
For we need You to help us find our way
In the day when our ears are bombarded by beckoning voices
And our world is polluted with sound
Lord, let us hear you

- Gentle Shepherd 

At Waterloo CRC we have a group of folks who are learning about justice for Indigenous peoples and are committed to acting on that knowledge. We call ourselves JIP – Justice and Indigenous Peoples.

The book of Genesis begins with a beautiful telling of the creation of the universe. It is a good creation and after humanity is on the scene it is a very good creation. The human story is a beautiful one with communion with the Creator, a beautiful garden, relationship with animals, the beginning of family life, and all of this takes place in a time of harmony.

Our Hearts Exchanged cohort spent time learning about the Doctrine of Discovery through readings, videos, stories and conversation. We had taken in the magnitude of how contrary to the way of Jesus this was and how incredibly inappropriate it was for the church to make such a declaration. We felt the weight of its harm and destruction. Reading and processing it together was an important part of the exchanging hearts experience. We were invited to respond, here is my poetic lament that was part of my Hearts Exchanged journey.

In my email to the editor of Do Justice, I asked, ‘How can I talk about how our bodies are disposed of in the dump or in the river and without being blunt, crude, disrespectful or violently graphic about it?’  I am not exaggerating. This is happening way too often. We Indigenous women are being murdered, then denied proper funerals (left in a landfill and in the rivers) and our families are left with no ceremony to help heal from the violent death of our loved ones. Our legal system hasn’t provided the justice balm needed to move beyond grief.

Our true identity is flat and plain, not puffed up with the wrong kind of ingredient. The Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has already been sacrificed for the Passover meal, and we are the Unraised Bread part of the Feast. So let’s live out our part in the Feast, not as raised bread swollen with the yeast of evil, but as flat bread—simple, genuine, unpretentious. - 1 Corinthians 5:6-8

Indigenous identity fraud has become so common that there is a “Pretendian List” circulating on the internet that includes Canadians and Americans.  The term “Pretendian” is used to call out a person who has falsely claimed Indigenous identity.  Many sectors of society and in particular universities are facing this fraud and the injustice it brings to Indigenous communities, students, staff and faculty of educational institutes.